


Another Day

by crossingwinter



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Brooklyn 99, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-20
Updated: 2015-11-20
Packaged: 2018-05-02 13:42:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5250284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crossingwinter/pseuds/crossingwinter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In refusing to talk about it, it is all they can think of.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [waviewing](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=waviewing).



_8:47 AM_

“You’re here early, James.”  Lily walks in with a paper mug of coffee. It has too much milk and too much sugar. James knows.  He smiles at her, knowing that it looks more forced than usual.

“You know me.  Always the diligent worker.” He can do professional.  He’s done professional up till now, and he can do it again. It’s not different now. It’s not.

“Your shirt’s on inside out,” Lily says, frowning. She wishes she hadn’t noticed. She doesn’t want to notice. She doesn’t want to wonder how he managed to put on a collared shirt inside out, but he had done it.

“Diligence knows no superficiality, Evans.”

“Sure,” Lily says.  She rounds her desk and settles down across from him, placing her coffee on a coaster, and tucking her hair behind her ears with both hands.

Lily logs into her computer, periodically lifting her coffee to her lips, and begins reading through the report he had started on the Crayferwinkle case the night before. “Hamsters?” she asks dryly.

“I am ever the diligent worker,” James repeats.

“I don’t think they need to know what breed of hamster Laura Crayferwinkle has.”

“How do you know?  It could be a hamster related homicide.”

Lily looks mildly pained as she keeps reading. She pretends it’s because of the details about hamsters in the report.  She doesn’t let herself think about their conversation the night before, and the way James’ face had fallen when she’d told him.  She hadn’t realized that one’s face could fall so literally until James’ had.

The elevator dings.  “Morning Jamesey!” James glances over at Peter.

“Is that a new belt, Wormtail?” Peter makes a face of delight. He likes the code names that James came up with for the team. 

“It is, _Prongs_ ,” he says, putting a special emphasis on the word.  “I got it from this Italian place in Soho.  Hand stitched.  Here. Look at the stitching.” He jerks his hips forward so they are right in James’ face.

“Those are some hand stitches, Pete,” James says. “And the buckle’s so shiny I could brush my teeth in it.”

“Well, if you need to,” Peter says happily.

“I already brushed my teeth this morning, Pete.”

“Oh.  All right.” Peter unbends his waist so he is standing normally again.  “Good morning, Lily.”

“Morning, Peter,” Lily says, looking up from her computer screen.  She flashes a smile at him, and Peter goes off to the kitchen to put his quinoa Israeli salad in the fridge.  She looks at James for a moment.  He’s focused on his computer screen.  She doesn’t think he notices. He does.

 

_9:15am_

“Potter, Evans, my office please.” Captain McGonagall says as she strides past their desks.  She has already removed her tweed jacket and is settling down behind her desk as James and Lily get up, glancing at one another, wondering what the Captain could already want.

“Captain, before you start, it was Skeeter who sent that email this morning.  I don’t know how she got into my account, but she did.”

McGonagall looks at the screen of her phone and swipes once or twice.  Then she reads aloud, “Why does the office smell like ass?  Who cleans in here?  Oh wait. I just found another mouse carcass in my desk.  Killer, ye shall be missed. James Potter.” She blinks at it, and Lily turns to look at James, her eyebrows raised.  James doesn’t look at Lily.

McGonagall puts her phone away and looks up at them over the tops of her glasses.  “How has the progress on the Crayferwinkle case come along?”

“We have a detailed account of Mrs. Crayferwinkle’s hamsters,” Lily says quickly, “but other than that, we haven’t had any new leads.”

“We have some potential new leads, captain,” James cuts in.  “We are pursuing those today.”

Lily looks at him, her eyes narrowed. “New leads?”

“Yes, Evans.”

“What new leads?”

“They’re new.”

“They weren’t in your report.”

“I am following up on them right now.”

“Right now you are standing in my office,” McGonagall says.  “And I want this case to be your top priority.  I’m getting pressure from the commissioner about it.”

“We’ll take care of it, sir,” Lily says at the same time that James says, “It’s as good as solved.”  They look at each other.  There is a pause, during which James flushes slightly and Lily tucks her hair behind her ears again. 

“That’s all.  You can go.  Keep me apprised.”

James stands aside to let Lily out of the office first. When he follows her out, his eyes drift down to her bottom before they jerk away and he jams his hands into his pockets and chews the inside of his cheek to discipline himself.  They’ve discussed it. It’s not going to happen. That’s the end of it.

Not that that makes him feel better.

 

_9:37_

“Sirius, you’re late,” Remus calls from his desk as Sirius strides out of the elevator.  His shirt is untucked and his tie is loose and his hair is disheveled. Remus does not sound surprised. Sirius has been late a lot lately.

“Sorry, sir,” Sirius says.  He does not elaborate.  He shakes his leather jacket from his shoulders and sits down at his desk across from James’. 

“Columbia?” James asks.

“Yes,” Sirius replies.

“Nice,” Peter grins.

“No.  Not nice.”

“Sorry.”  The grin slides from Peter face.  “Did you break up?”

“What?  No.” Sirius shoots a glare at Peter, but it doesn’t seem to make him quail.  Sirius redoubles his efforts.  They don’t work.  “Damn it. Why won’t my glare work on you?”

“I am impervious today, Sirius,” Peter says and it’s as though a ray of sunshine is bursting from his face. “Wendy and I went to third base last night.  _And_ she agrees with me about the mouthfeel of Gino’s pizza.”

“Ew,” says Sirius.  His brows are now so furrowed that they seem to be all one line. On anyone else, it might have made him look ugly.  On Sirius, somehow, inexplicably, it is attractive.

“What’s not nice, then?” James asks.

Sirius looks around.  Lily is watching from her desk, but not saying a word. Remus is staring at some paperwork at his, and Diggle and Figg are pretending not to know how to open solitaire on their computers for the fourth time this week.

“Penny wants to move in with me next fall,” he mutters.

“Nice,” James says grinning.  Sirius shoots him a black look.  “No.  Sorry. Forgot.  Not nice.  Very not nice.”

“You don’t want to move in with her?” Lily asks. Her voice clearly carries further than Sirius wants it to, and Sirius hisses, “Stick a sock in it, Evans, will you?”

“Sorry,” she says, her voice dropping, but the rebuke doesn’t seem to affect her.  It might have, once.  But not since Sirius had started dating Penny, somehow.

“And it’s none of your business,” Sirius snaps. He turns on his computer and glares at the screen.  None of them stop looking at him and he mutters.  “That’s not the problem.”

Peter makes a delighted noise, but James asks, “So what is?”

Sirius looks at Captain McGonagall’s office. “Don’t want to mix work with my private life.” 

“Ah,” Lily says.

“If Penny moves in with me, I’ll have to have McGonagall over for dinner at some point.   Penny’s her niece.  I don’t want McGonagall in any part of my life that’s not here in the office.”

“And I’m sure she feels the same,” James responds chipperly.

“She does.  That’s the problem.”

Sirius opens his email, eyes scanning across his screen.

“Killer died?”

“He shall be missed,” James says sadly, and Sirius grunts.

 

_10:01_

“What’ve you got there, Sarge?” Lily asks on her way to the coffee machine, empty mug in hand.

Remus looks up, startled.  “I got a castle for Teddy and I’m reading through the blueprint.”

Lily makes a cooing sound, and Remus flaps his arms. “Stop,” he says. “I don’t want James to try and help.”

“Why not?” Lily looks confused, as though she can’t fathom why James wouldn’t be wanted.  It is an unhelpful thing to think.  Especially because she’s not dating cops right now.  Even if they’re James Potter, who makes her laugh.

“Would you want him helping make something delicate for your child?  He can barely open his filing cabinet without causing mass destruction.” 

As if on cue, the top drawer of James’ filing cabinet goes flying, spewing papers as it goes.  “I meant to do that,” James calls loudly.  “Nothing to see here.  Police business.”  Lily flushes, but doesn’t respond.

“Yeah.”  Lily changes the subject quickly.  “So, does he like castles?  I thought he liked airplanes.”

“He does like airplanes,” Remus says. “But Dora and I are tired of throwing things around to keep his attention.  We’re trying to get him more interested in something else. Dora hopes that knights and kings will mean fewer projectile meals.”

Lily smiles.  She is remembering a time when James kept throwing cheetos at her until she caught one in her mouth.  She doesn’t want to think about that right now. 

“Well, I wish you luck with that,” she says. She tries to think of something else to say, but can’t quite. Remus waits for a second, but before he can think of something else, James breezes by.

“Evans, come on.  I’ve got a lead.”

“Oh really?” she asks dryly.  “One of those new leads you told McGonagall about?”

“Yepper.”

She rolls her eyes for Remus’ benefit, but James has already thrown her coat into her arms and she shrugs into it as he strides off towards the elevator.  She does her best not to notice how broad his shoulders are. 

She tucks her hair behind her ears.

 

_10:49_

They’re back at Mrs. Creyferwinkle’s apartment, and James ducks under the yellow police tape and puts on his sunglasses. They are inside, but James doesn’t care. He needs to put on his sunglasses when he enters a crime scene.  He doesn’t make the rules.  He just enforces them. Because he’s a cop.

Lily pulls her hair into a ponytail. James pretends not to notice. He likes Lily’s hair down. But she had said she wasn’t dating cops right now.  Better to keep her personal life away from her professional life.  Like Sirius and Penny McGonagall.  Except that wasn’t working.  But that was because Sirius sometimes didn’t think things through properly. Lily did.  And Lily said she wasn’t going to date cops. So she wasn’t going to. So he needed to stop noticing how she kept her hair, even if it stung.  It stung his pride, but nothing more.  It wasn’t her problem.  It was his. And stings hurt less with time. Most of the time.

“What are we looking for?” Lily asks. She’s got her notebook in hand and is watching him.  James breaks eye contact, forgetting that he’s wearing sunglasses, and Lily doesn’t know he’s making eye contact at all.

“When we were last here, did you smell butterscotch?”

“Butterscotch?”

“Butterscotch.”

“Your big new lead is butterscotch?”

“Lily, I’m a really good detective. Butterscotch.”

Lily rolls her eyes and sniffs. Then she frowns. She remembers smelling hamster poop and dust.  But not butterscotch.

“No.”

“Exactly.  Come on.”

 

_11:14_

“So when does Penny move in?”

“Shut up, Pete.”

“She is moving in, right?”

“Not right now.”

“I mean, I know that.  You’re at work and you keep your apartment locked with four keys and even _I_ don’t know where you keep the last one.”  Sirius glares at him. Peter shrugs it off. “Come on, Sirius. When’s Penny moving in?”

“Penny’s moving in?”  Remus walks past with a mug of coffee.  “Congratulations, Sirius.  Taking things to the next level.”

“Things aren’t going to the next level,” snaps Sirius.

“Oh,” Remus says, looking slightly deflated. “I misunderstood, then.”

Sirius continues.  “Next level means double dates and watching shows together on Netflix and dinners with the family.  And I don’t want dinners with the family.”

“We know, Sirius.  Your family is terrible,” Peter says emphatically. “Horrible.”

“Out of the picture,” adds in Remus for good measure. Sirius rolls his eyes. They don’t acknowledge that Dora’s mother is Sirius’ cousin.

“Not my family.  _Penny’s_ family.” He jerks his head significantly at McGonagall’s office.  At just that moment, the door to McGonagall’s office opens and she steps out.

“Black,” she says crisply, and Sirius gets to his feet and slouches into her office after her.

“I understand it that Penelope has asked to move in with you at the end of her semester,” McGonagall says.

“No.  Yes. She suggested it. It wasn’t a question,” Sirius says. McGonagall raises her eyebrows. Sirius slumps a little further. “We’re talking about it.”

“I was under the impression that you were keeping your personal life and your professional life separate,” McGonagall says. “We had agreed on a course of action.”

“I’m trying,” says Sirius.  “Penny has other plans.”

“I was relying on not having to hear more about your relations with my niece than I already do.”

“I want nothing more, sir.”

McGonagall nods.  “Well, in that case, please keep your discussions of my niece’s and your personal life out of my precinct.”

“I’m trying,” Sirius says.

“Try harder.”

“I will,” Sirius promises.

“That will be all,” McGonagall says.

“Thank you, sir.”

 

_12:30_

Lily and James stop at Gino’s pizza for lunch, ignoring Peter’s strong opinions about the mouthfeel of the establishment’s pizza.

They sit silently, pretending to check their phones for updates on their case, but not really looking at the contents of the screen.  They are determinedly not talking about their conversation of the night before.

“Artichoke and pepperoni?” James suggests.

“Sure,” Lily says.  Her voice is breathy.  She doesn’t even push him about his proposed toppings.

“Great!”  James doesn’t even push her for letting him order an odd combination of pizza toppings.

In refusing to talk about it, it is all they can think of. And the more that she thinks about it, the more Lily wonders if she’d made a mistake after all. She hadn’t, had she? Dating cops is a bad idea. She knows this. But James isn’t just a cop. There’s so much more to him than that.

 

_1:16_

Peter goes into the records room and finds Remus hunched over a model castle.  Remus does not look content.  If anything, he looks despairing.

“What’s going on, Sarge?” Peter asks.

“I can’t put it together,” Remus moans. “I am a failure of a father. All I want is to make a castle for my little boy, and I can’t.  No one can make these castles, Peter.  They pieces are tiny.  No one’s hands are that small.  No one. Only fairies or elves could put these together.  Am I a tiny fairy, Peter?” 

“You are a very muscular specimen. I’ve always categorized you as more of a werewolf build.  Or minotaur.”

“These aren’t for minotaur hands, Peter,” Remus practically wails.  “These aren’t for werewolf hands.”

“Well,” Peter says.  “Lucky for you my hands are much more of an elvish variety.” Peter holds up his hands and wiggles his fingers.  He settles down next to the castle and sets to work.

 

_2:45_

“I am an excellent detective, Lily. And everyone in the nine nine should know it.”  Lily and James step out of the elevator into the precinct.

“Oh yes.  A _most_ excellent detective.”

“I don’t hear quite enough impressedness in your tone, Lily.”  She’s had to keep it out of there.  In truth she’s blown away by him, but she can’t show it, especially not now.  She wishes she could. 

“Butterscotch, James.”  She misses being able to celebrate their victories together, and it’s the only one they haven’t been able to.  How many more will there be?

“It’s not my fault that the neighbors had been making butterscotch cookies.”

“No, but it was your fault that we terrified a tiny old lady.”

“Details, Evans.  Details.”

McGonagall steps out of her office. “Evans, Potter. Can I take it—”

“The case is closed, sir!  Evil shall never again walk the streets of Brooklyn.”

“There have been four thefts and a murder reported in the last hour,” McGongagall says.

“Evil shall never again walk the streets of four twenty nine Franklin Avenue,” James corrects himself without missing a beat.

“It was the landlord, sir,” Lily says eagerly. “They’d had the locks switched in the middle of the night.”

“Good.  I expect a report on my desk before you leave tonight.”

“Yes sir,” James says.  McGonagall jerks a nod at them, and they go and sit down.

“An excellent detective, Lily,” James says. His voice is hearty. She’s not looking at him and he makes a face, then settles down at his computer.  Lily looks up at him, sees he’s not looking at her, and frowns.

 

_4:21_

Sirius gets a text message, and frowns into his phone. He gets up from his desk and crosses into the rec room. 

 

_4:27_

Sirius returns to his desk.  To the untrained eye, he looks like he’s frowning. To the trained eye, and James is the trained eye, there’s a hint of a smile.

 

_4:39_

Remus and Peter emerge from the records room carrying a castle between them.  Peter helps Remus into the elevator with it.

 

_4:41_

“Have you talked to her?” James asks. He’s waited a whole twenty minutes. He’s proud of himself.

“Yes,” Sirius says. 

James waits, but Sirius doesn’t elaborate. Lily’s typing very intensely, pretending not to listen.

“What did you decide?”

“I’m keeping my personal life and professional separate,” Sirius says.  “But,” he shoots a look at McGonagall’s door.  The door is closed, and they hear her shouting at Diggle and Figg.  “She’s moving in.”

James grins.  “That’s great.”

“And I’m never talking about this in here again.”

“I’ll take you out for beers after work.”

“Yes, but only if Peter’s not invited. He can’t keep a secret.”

 

_4:49_

Peter returns from the street. He goes into the kitchen to have an afternoon Greek yogurt with chocolate sprinkles.  Lily gets up to get some more coffee.  Sirius shoots James a look.

“Have you talked to her?”

“I did.  She’s not dating cops.  That’s it.” James continues to sound determined. He is not thinking about the way she’d looked at him when he’d nabbed the Creyferwinkle killer, or the way she’d bit her lip over lunch.  If he thinks about it too hard, he’d get hopeful, and then he’d have to remind himself, for the fifty-ninth time that day that she’d meant what she’d said and she wasn’t dating cops, and it had nothing to do with him, and everything to do with all the other dipshits she’d dated.

“That’s it?”

“Yes.  That’s it. That’s what she wants. I’ll get over it.” He would.  It would suck, but other things sucked too. He was already done mourning Killer the mouse for example.

“James—”

“I’ll get over it, Sirius,” James says forcefully. They both know it’s not true.

Lily comes back.  James keeps typing.

 

_5:32_

James goes into the records room to double check a file.  Lily tucks her hair behind her ears and follows him in.

“James?”

James turns around.

“Has today been weird?” she asks him.

It has been.  James contemplates lying.  “N—yes.”

“Yes?”

“Yeah.”

“Look—” Lily begins, but James cuts her off.

“You said no.  You weren’t interested.  I’m not going to force you into this.  If it’s not what you want, it’s not what you want.  I understand that completely.  It doesn’t have to change anything.”

“But today was weird,” Lily says.

“Yeah.  Well it only happened yesterday.  We’ll both get past it.  We might just need a second to make that happen.  But you know what? We’re friends. Damn good ones. We’ll still be friends. Friends push through this sort of—”

Lily steps forward and grabs his collar and pulls his lips down to hers.  James makes a surprised noise, then pulls away, looking at her.

“Did you—”

“I—”  Lily takes a deep breath.  “I’m not sure I was right.  Yesterday. About not dating cops. It might just have been….might just have been not dating cops who aren’t you.”

James blinks at her.  “Really?”

“Yeah.  I think so.”

“Is it because I’m an excellent cop?” he asks, puffing out his chest slightly, a grin spreading across his face. “Because I’m really good at being a cop. Justice has never been safer than in my hands.”

Lily rolls her eyes and stands on her tiptoes and kisses him again and James wraps his arms around her.   



End file.
